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by Chipper_Daily



Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), But still ghost shenanigans, Ghost Hunting, IN SPACE!, M/M, More by accident, Pining, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:08:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21945619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chipper_Daily/pseuds/Chipper_Daily
Summary: “Oh no.” Zim buried his face in his hands with a pained groan as Dib rose to his feet.“Is this… a haunted alien space station?!” Dib balled his fists over his chest in barely concealed excitement. “This is the best day of my life!”
Relationships: Dib/Zim (Invader Zim)
Comments: 24
Kudos: 161





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**Author's Note:**

> This one's written for the [tumblr zadr Secret Santa](https://zadr-secretsanta.tumblr.com), so happy holidays to the wonderful Lampstain, who asked for some delicious ghost hunting! I hope your holiday is filled with light & love ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ

Dib paused mid-argument, his mouth left hanging open as his eyes widened, and he whirled abruptly on his heel to shine his pocket flashlight up and down the cold, featureless hallway.

“Wait- have we been this way already? You’ve been keeping track, right?” Dib turned back to the small Irken in time to catch Zim’s blank look a split second before he carefully schooled his putrid little green face into a more neutral expression. Exasperation spiked beneath the human’s ribs (blessedly before panic) as Dib threw his arms up. “ZIM! Seriously?!”

“Why must ZIM be the one to map everything out, lazy slug?!” The former Invader (but eternal thorn in Dib’s side) met Dib’s explosive accusation with his own.

“Because your brain is _literally a computer,_ you moron!” Zim’s mouth popped open to sling a rebuttal, but he paused, magenta eyes flicking to the side as his jaw snapped shut again, and he clenched his tiny fists. 

“Yeah, well-” Zim gritted his teeth in frustration as he desperately tried to shift gears for a moment before he squeezed his eyes shut and bunched his scrawny shoulders to bark up at his much taller companion. “Your brain is stupid!”

“You know what, you’re probably right- This is MY fault for expecting you to do anything RIGHT for once!” Dib buried his fingers in his unruly hair, the narrow beam of light from his flashlight dancing erratically across the walls that stretched seemingly endlessly both behind and before the tragic duo as Dib twisted to pace in a tight circle with a frustrated hiss. “ _Why_ did I let you talk me into this?” Zim sputtered his disbelief from the shadows.

“I DIDN’T, you horrible ape!” Zim pointed accusingly, his large magenta eyes glowing faintly in the dark. “I expressly told you NOT to come!”

“Well, playing the blame game now isn’t going to solve anything.” Dib sniffed dismissively, his tone instantly shifting from confrontational to haughty like he was above these sorts of childish squabbles. He turned to continue down the dark hall. “Right now, we need to focus on finding our ship again.”

“ _MY_ ship is not going anywhere, Dib-monkey.” Zim sneered, but fell in step behind his annoying human partner without further dispute, his polished black boots clicking smartly against the steel floor. “Right now, we need to focus on finding more refined squigidium to repair my base.” Zim’s lip curled as he tightly crossed his arms, his tone souring snidely. “You know, since SOMETHING managed to fry it. _Dib._ ”

“Yeah, it’s a real mystery. I wonder whatever could have happened.” Dib hummed innocently as he very purposefully didn’t meet Zim’s suspicious gaze and slightly quickened his pace. 

It wasn’t that much of a mystery- Dib had accidentally fried Zim’s central AI when he tried to jerry-rig a crude interface to remotely take control of the Irken’s base. For scientific purposes. (Namely the scientific pursuit of antagonizing Zim in retribution for being a little brat all the time.) However, Zim didn’t have any solid proof it was Dib. While the self-proclaimed paranormal investigator did feel kind of bad, he valued his own skin- specifically how it was attached to the rest of him- a bit too much to come clean to the former Invader. 

Not to mention, Dib was always happy to jump at literally any opportunity to leave Earth and explore what the rest of the cosmos had to offer. So he could assuage his guilt by telling himself he was semi-making it up to Zim by tagging along to help AND get to be the first human to set foot on a genuine alien asteroid mining station. Which felt like a pretty win-win situation for Dib at least. And, honestly, if Zim didn’t want to wind up in these sorts of situations, he really shouldn’t be using a system that requires elements not commonly found on the planet he was squatting on.

He would have to remember to do something nice for Gaz once they returned to Earth to thank her for graciously keeping an eye on GIR and Minimoose, too. Not that he’d allowed his sister to turn down the impromptu babysitting job- Dib had dropped the two mechanical monsters off at his dad’s house and skedaddled at about 3 am before Gaz was even out of bed. She liked GIR well enough, right? So she probably wouldn’t be too mad, right? Right.

“Where are we supposed to be getting this ‘squigy-whatever’ stuff anyway?” Dib flicked his flashlight beam along the wall and across the ceiling. There was nothing to differentiate this dull, unadorned hallway from any of the others they’d drifted through. “Are we even in the right place? This station feels pretty...” His voice seemed to echo down the dark, empty hall, the only breeze disturbing the still, stagnant air was what they stirred up themselves. "Not right."

“Of course we’re in the right place, Dib-worm!” Zim snapped defensively before he crossed his arms and glanced away nervously. “It is… darker than usual, though…” He trailed off awkwardly. 

Dib cast a dubious look down at the tiny Irken, but before he could voice his doubts, a loud metallic clang rang through the barren hall, like someone had dropped a wrench or pipe- something steel and heavy. Both Dib and Zim’s heads twisted to peer down the dark corridor behind them, Zim’s antenna bolted forward in alarm. Dib barely began to turn his flashlight to illuminate the hall behind them, an awkward “Hello?” still caught in his throat when Zim tackled him, like an _asshole,_ and slapped a tiny gloved hand over Dib’s mouth. Before Dib could even process what was happening, he found himself dragged down the hall and unceremoniously flung around the first corner they came across. 

“What the HELL, Zim?” Dib spat as soon as he managed to slap Zim’s hand away from his mouth. Zim held his finger over his lips to shoosh him before leaning around the corner to squint down the hall. Dib narrowed his eyes as the tragically familiar sensation of both irritation and dread he’d come to associate with Zim’s misadventures stirred beneath his ribs. “What is this? What did you do?”

“Nothing! You are so quick to assume the worst about me, you know that, right?” Zim whispered back indignantly, his magenta gaze flicked over to shoot Dib a deeply offended scowl before he returned to scanning the hall. “Everything I did last time I was here was completely legal and within my rights.” Zim paused for a beat before he finished in a dark grumble. “It was just maybe not entirely legal on THIS particular station.” Dib groaned his frustration and banged the back of his head against the wall with a heavy thunk.

“Oh my GOD, Zim, you are just. The _worst._ ” He ran his hands down his face. “So, what now? Are we going to get thrown in space prison? AGAIN?” 

“We’re not getting thrown anywhere, Earth-boy.” Zim shot him a cutting sideways glance. “And that one time was YOUR fault, by the way.” The little Irken nodded, drew himself back up to his feet and silently slipped around the corner. He poked his head around the edge to eye Dib critically. “Just follow me and stop with the lip-smacky noises. If you blow my cover, I WILL throw your ugly meat body at the guards to buy me time to get out of here.” 

“Stealth is my middle name, space-boy.” Dib steadied himself against the wall as he drew himself to his feet as well, never once breaking eye contact with his age-old nemesis. Zim’s antenna quirked inquisitively as Dib’s voice dropped mutinously. “And once we get back to Earth, I’m going to burn your house down.” 

Zim curled his lip skeptically, but whatever retort he had was rudely interrupted by the hall lights suddenly switching back on. Both Zim and Dib flinched, reflexively bracing themselves for a blow that never came. First, Dib straightened cautiously to nervously check up and down the featureless halls, then Zim. Upon confirming they still appeared alone, their eyes met once more. 

“Were those on before?” Dib asked hesitantly, his brow furrowing apprehensively. Strangely, for the life of him, he couldn’t remember.

Zim just shrugged with a noncommittal grunt.

\---

“WHY is nothing marked around here?!” Zim finally threw his hands in the air with a frustrated snarl as he whirled on Dib.

"Why would I know?!” Dib barked back as Zim bristled and yanked on his antenna with an explosive hiss. They’d wandered the featureless halls for who even knew how long by this point and Dib was starting to get worried. The asteroid mining station was shaped like a massive wagon wheel spinning slowly around a thick spike that ran down the center, and he hadn’t thought it looked _that_ big when they approached the docks. It wasn’t even the largest alien structure Dib had ever boarded, and it certainly seemed like it shouldn’t have been THAT difficult to navigate. Now he couldn’t remember seeing the landing bay again at any point in their search, even though they were very literally walking in circles. Apparently, somehow, the inside was a greater labyrinth than he’d initially anticipated. Zim clearly had no idea either, which wasn’t exactly encouraging. “I think we should try to find the Voot, Zim, this place doesn’t feel right.” They still hadn’t encountered any sign of life beyond the two of them anywhere in the seemingly abandoned station. 

“What about my base, Dib-thing?” Zim planted his hands on his hips with a sneer. 

“Can’t you get your squid-stuff somewhere else? Like, don’t you guys have an Irken Amazon or something?” Dib gestured sharply.

“Do you have any idea how expensive refined squigidium is to have delivered?” Zim scoffed disparagingly.

“Clearly, I don’t, Zim.” 

“Also, how do you think I’m going to order it when my _computer isn’t functioning,_ DIB?” Dib quickly glanced away and shoved his hands defensively in his pockets and pursed his lips in thought. 

“I’m sure… we could maybe rig something up with my computer-?” Dib started in a too-innocent tone as he glanced down at the little Irken from the corner of his eye in time to watch Zim cross his arms and pinch his lips into a tight, disapproving line. 

“And give YOU unsupervised access to alien tech?” Zim scoffed. “You wish. You’re so transparent it’s embarrassing, human.” Dib sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck.

“I mean, it’s worth a shot?” 

The lights flickered, drawing both boys out of their spat as Zim and Dib leaned back to stare dumbly up at the ceiling. Then they found themselves plunged into darkness once again. Dib sighed into the pitch-black as he fumbled in his pocket for his flashlight.

“Are you sure this place isn’t abandoned?” Dib flicked his flashlight directly into Zim’s face. The little Irken threw his arm over his eyes with a melodramatic hiss that Dib ignored in favour of flicking the thin beam of light down the hall. He didn’t wait for Zim to respond before he began walking again. “Seriously, let’s just find the docking bay and get out of here. We can figure out how to get your squid-fix on the Voot.” He paused mid-step when he realized he couldn’t hear the sharp click of Zim’s little heels falling in step behind him. “... Zim?” He turned his flashlight back to shine on the back of the tiny terror’s green head. Zim was facing away down the hall behind them. 

Any further questions Dib had died in his throat as his gaze shifted beyond Zim to the thin beams of light cutting through the darkness deeper down the hall. 

The beams of light were… wrong, somehow. They moved like pencil scratches across paper, jagged and organic, and they didn’t seem to actually illuminate anything. Yet Dib could still make out the faint outline of the three bulky figures that wielded the strange flashlights. The figures shifted and flowed against each other, black on black, their outlines jagged like something he’d draw into the margins of his notebooks in pen back in high skool. They floated soundlessly across the hallway, strange cords coiled weightlessly around their ever-shifting fluid forms. Dib’s mouth silently fell open as he watched the figures drift until one of them slowly shifted to face him. A pair of wide empty eyes opened in a black void of a face, its eyes as stark and blank as though somehow some divine being simply forgot to paint them, as unrelenting bone white as a bare canvas. 

The hall around him seemed to grow darker, the flimsy beam from his flashlight fading weakly, and had the station always been this cold?

Dib was abruptly shaken from his trance-like state by a tiny body barrelling into his torso. He lost his footing, and the unexpected impact punched the breath from his lungs, but he didn’t get the chance to hit the steel floor. Instead, Dib found himself clumsily scooped up in surprisingly strong scrawny arms and lifted up and away from the ground altogether, Zim’s silver PAK legs scuttling against the tiles as the little Irken made a hasty retreat. 

Dib had no way to keep track of all the twists and turns the pair took, and he felt his stomach sink with the knowledge that Zim almost definitely wasn't either. Then again, they were already lost. It’s not like they were going to get MORE lost. 

Finally, Dib found himself unceremoniously dropped onto the floor like a sack of potatoes when Zim’s PAK legs retracted as abruptly as they had burst forth. Dib grunted as he hit the steel tiles while Zim landed gracefully on his feet. 

“WHY isn’t anything MARKED in this blasted place?!” Zim screeched his frustration to the ceiling, his tiny fists raising with his fury. Dib groaned as he rolled onto his stomach and stiffly hauled himself up to his knees. He shot Zim a venomous look, not that the little Irken noticed, and gingerly rubbed his shoulder. 

“What were those _things_ supposed to be? Are they what’s running this place? Because, honestly, that would explain a lot.” Dib quirked an eyebrow and aimed his flashlight back in Zim’s face. Partially because Zim was an embarrassingly transparent liar, considering his Invader class’ whole modus operandi was supposed to be infiltration and deception, and Dib wanted to make sure the little Irken wasn’t going to try to pull a fast one on him. But mostly Dib was doing it to annoy his former nemesis and only maybe-kind-of friend. 

“I don’t know, Dib-stink, I’ve never seen anything like that before.” Zim squinted a scowl in the glare of Dib’s flashlight. “Point that horrible thing somewhere else, or I’m going to chew your inferior knuckle cartilage like the universe's most unsatisfactory gum.” 

“You may not have seen anything like that before- but _I_ have.” Dib’s eyes widened, his gaze drifted as he lost himself in thought, paying exactly no mind to Zim’s threat. His face split into a wide grin, and Zim’s shoulders drooped as the little alien recognized Dib’s expression instantly.

“Oh no.” Zim buried his face in his hands with a pained groan as Dib rose to his feet.

“Is this… a _haunted alien space station?!_ ” Dib balled his fists over his chest in barely concealed excitement. “This is the best day of my _life!_ ”

The lights flicked back on as Dib squeezed his eyes shut and vibrated with a delighted hum.

“YOU did this!” Zim hissed and pointed a sharp little talon accusingly. “You should have left your wretched _para-normous_ nonsense back on your ugly ball of filth!”

“I’d always theorized that ghosts aren't exclusively an Earth phenomenon, but here we have a chance to gather some real evidence-” 

“No, no, NO! We will be gathering NOTHING, but Zim’s squigidium! I refuse to get sucked into another one of your horrible _scenicses!_ ” 

“The word you’re looking for is _seance,_ and I got the demons out after so you can’t still be mad about that.” Dib paused before thoughtfully scratching his rough stubble. “If alien ghosts are anything like human ones, then those three must have died here somewhere, and probably suddenly too, so they’d have unfinished business to anchor them here. I wonder if that’s linked to what’s going on with the rest of the station? How populated was this place before?” He mused absently. “They kinda looked like they were wearing space suits or something- could this place have been somehow damaged?” 

“That would be _really_ bad news for us if it was.” Zim’s antenna perked forward. 

“What? Scared of a little vacuum, space-boy?” Dib teased lightly with a quirked eyebrow. “It can’t be damaged THAT badly, or we both probably would have died already.” Dib blinked as a thought suddenly occurred to him. “At least _I_ would have- how much can you survive anyway?” 

“Not being sucked out an airlock into the void of open space, if that’s what you’re asking.” Zim squinted one eye. “Which, if the station IS damaged, could be exactly what’s waiting behind almost any of these airlock doors!” Zim flung his arms wide to gesture towards the sealed doors on either side of the narrow hall before crossing his arms tightly. “Maybe there WAS a breach in the outer hull? It would explain why everything’s on lockdown, and there’s no one around…” He trailed off as his little green brow furrowed, and his antenna dipped nervously. “Actually, I have decided I can make do without the squigidium, let’s go find the Voot.” Dib pursed his lips and stubbornly crossed his arms as he critically eyed up his tiny sworn nemesis.

It was a long while before Dib replied. 

“You know what… _fine._ ” The human eventually sighed as his posture deflated. He supposed the threat of literally dying in the cold vacuum of space was enough of a deterrent to keep him from digging his heels in on the ghost hunting front. Not to mention, he didn’t have any of his equipment. He hadn’t exactly been expecting to need it out here, and Zim always got so persnickety about what Dib brought onto the little Irken’s already cramped ship. He was still disappointed, though. “But you have to promise we’ll come back to investigate once we’re more prepared later!”

“You DO realize I’m perfectly capable of just leaving you here to die, right, Dib-monkey?”

\---

Finding the Voot was easier said than done. 

They had no more luck navigating the featureless halls just because they’d changed their target. And the unknown threat of whatever had forced the station into lockdown left them both pretty hesitant to attempt to pry open any of the tightly sealed airlock doors that dotted the unmarked halls. An oppressive silence had fallen between the two, and Dib couldn’t help but find himself walking closer to Zim as anxiety pricked up his spine, making his shoulders tense beneath his signature coat. 

If anyone had tried to tell him ten years ago he’d one day consider Zim a(n annoying) source of comfort, he would have called them a liar (among many other less flattering things). 

Dib couldn’t even pinpoint the exact moment things had changed. He supposed it would be safe to say it wasn’t any one particular exchange, more like a thousand small interactions over the years between two rivals that were more alike than either of them would be comfortable to admit. To this day, they would both still vehemently swear they were bitter enemies, even as they wound up teaming up and going to each other when they needed help significantly more frequently than they wound up on opposing sides these days. They still had appearances to uphold, you know. 

“Is the Dib trying to climb into Zim’s PAK?” Zim finally whirled on Dib after the human stepped onto the back of his heel once (which was once too often) and abruptly shoved him away. “Get off of me!”

“Whatever, Zim! You’re the one that was trying to crawl into my coat pocket last time the lights went out!” Zim bristled at the accusation. Dib held up a hand to stop him before he could escalate the dispute any further. “Look, what can you remember from the last time you were here? We’ve been walking in circles for too long already.” 

“What’s the matter, is the useless flesh prison you consider a pathetic body starting to shut down for need of your biologically mandated ‘sleep’ or ‘pre-packaged cereals,’ Earth-boy?” 

“ _No,_ ” Dib scoffed. “But I’d rather not be stuck in a haunted hallway when it does. Come on, Zim, we’re not getting anywhere just wandering around like this.” The little Irken pursed his thin green lips and abruptly spun on his heel to quickly pace in a tight circle as he absently tapped a long claw against his chin. Dib felt his shoulders droop as a fresh wave of exasperation washed over him. “I thought you said you’d been here before?” 

“The wretched halls used to have SIGNS, Dib-filth.” Zim bunched his narrow shoulders defensively as he whirled on his human. “Without those, everything here looks the SAME. Even your inferior eyes can see that!” He glanced away with an aggravated huff before continuing in a softer, more thoughtful tone. “If we can make our way to the core, I could hook up to the central computer system and see about downloading a map, though.” His magenta eyes brightened. “Then we could get my squigidium AND find my Voot again! It should be illegal to be this brilliant!” 

“And HOW, exactly, are we supposed to _find_ the core? We can’t even find the docking bay.” Dib pinched the bridge of his nose where the beginnings of what promised to be a doozy of a headache was brewing behind his eyes. 

“The core is in the central spike, all we have to do is keep going deeper. Not even YOU could mess that up.” Zim hummed smugly and planted his fists triumphantly on his hips as he turned to head further down the hall. 

The lights flickered above them as Zim waved a hand with his usual flourish without bothering to look back, silently motioning Dib to fall in behind him. 

\---

Dib was beginning to seriously think they really were the only people on the space station. The pale beam of his flashlight cut through the smothering darkness. The single other source of light was the soft pink glow of Zim’s PAK panels, which was all Dib had to keep track of his Irken partner. There was no other sign of life, and even worse, there was no sign of what could have happened to what life there had been either. There wasn’t even dust accumulated on the immaculately clean floors, and the sound of their footfalls fired through the oppressive silence like gunshots. It was so quiet Dib could swear if they stopped moving, he’d be able to hear his heart beating. 

His thoughts drifted back to the strange figures they’d seen floating through the hall. What had they been in life? How did they die and wind up trapped in this place? Did all three of them die together or in separate events and had been compelled to seek out other entities like themselves? Perhaps what had been complete strangers in life were now bound together in death? Had they been murdered, or did they meet their end in some sort of tragic accident? If it had been an accident, what was it, and more importantly, was it still a threat? Like a gas leak or, as Zim theorized, a breach in the outer hull? Were he and Zim in danger of meeting the same fate? And were there more ghostly spectres doomed to roam the featureless halls? 

And had the station always been this _cold?_

Dib hunched deeper into what flimsy warmth his coat provided as he followed Zim’s glowing PAK around another corner. 

And promptly almost plowed into the little Irken. 

“Zim! What are you-” His indignant objection died weakly in his throat as his gaze drifted down the hall. 

There was… _nothing._

A chill ran up his spine as he took an instinctive step back before he could stop himself. 

The hallways they’d been wandering through were dark, but it was nothing compared to the thick veil of impenetrable black that yawned down the hall like a gaping maw. It had been quiet before, but here it felt as though sound itself were swallowed. Their boots were stiflingly silent against steel, and Dib couldn’t even hear himself breathe anymore. And it- _whatever_ it was- was _cold,_ so cold it felt sharp against his exposed skin and made his bones ache. 

It was too cold to feel his numb legs move, too silent to hear his shuffling, leaden steps against the tiles, yet still, he could feel it subtly drawing him closer. 

Dib wasn’t one to give in to fear, his natural curiosity tended to override his self-preservation instincts, yet he was gripped by raw, primal panic once he abruptly snapped out of his strange trance. 

He swore he couldn’t hear Zim, he couldn’t hear _anything,_ yet Zim’s desperate cry rang through his entire being like ripples through still water. 

Zim had called his name. 

He sounded frightened.

_Zim was calling his name._

Dibs eyes widened as he tried to gasp, ice seizing his lungs and ripping through his veins, and no sound escaped his lips. 

It wasn’t until he stumbled and nearly fell that he realized he was clumsily running. Dib breathlessly caught himself and blinked in bewilderment, the only difference between his eyes being open and shut was three softly glowing pink panels bobbing in the darkness in front of him. Oh, he wasn’t running on his own- Zim was dragging him. Away from the hallway and the strange, all-encompassing darkness that lurked within. 

They didn’t stop until they rounded another corner, this one thankfully not clogged with whatever that horrid shadow substance was supposed to be. Zim finally came to a skittering stop to brace one little hand against the wall, their ragged, panting breaths the only sound between them. 

They both realized they were holding hands at the same time. 

A jolt of shock ripped through Dib’s body, and he tried to snatch his hand back, only to find his fingers were too cold as if the joints had frozen solid locked in their tight grip.

A split second later, Zim yanked his hand away. At the same moment, the lights flickered back on, as if timed to make sure Dib could _really_ appreciate the dirty look the former Invader levelled at him as Zim rudely rubbed his gloved hand off on his tunic. Dib couldn’t even get mad. His gaze anxiously dropped to the hand that had been frozen entwined with Zims only to find it… perfectly normal. He curled and uncurled each of his fingers with fluid ease, his skin the same healthy caramel colour as always under the harsh fluorescent lights. 

“What the hell was THAT?” Dib barked as he plunged both his hands into his pockets. 

“I don’t know!” Zim threw his hands in the air, his volume rising to match Dibs. His large, almond-shaped eyes squeezed tightly shut as a shudder crawled up his spine before he jabbed a finger into Dib’s chest. “This is YOUR fault! You just couldn’t leave your _ghosty garbage_ back on Earth, could you? You just HAD to infect the rest of the universe with your CRAZY!” His shoulders bunched as he screeched. “UGH! If I had known your hideous big-headed _lunacy_ was contagious, I never would have allowed you to leave your ugly spit of a planet!” He paused in a moment of thought. “Or I would have just shoved you out of an airlock or something.” 

“Hey! I just got here! Whatever is going on has nothing to do with me, you _jerk!_ ” Dib snapped back before a more relevant thought struck him. “Though if that _thing_ is somehow linked to the ghosts we saw earlier, I wonder if there’s some way we can communicate with them to see if they can give us some answers…?”

“Dib, so help me, I will wear your skin like a smelly coat if you even THINK about getting all chummy with the grim spectres of death.” Zim’s eyes narrowed dangerously as he planted his fists on his hips. “We have a plan, and we’re sticking to it, and then we’re getting out of this horrible nightmare pit and never speaking of it again.” 

\---

Except that thing lurking in the hall wasn’t so easy to walk away from. 

It was starting to become painfully obvious that whatever the swallowing blackness was, it was blocking off each hallway that would lead further into the station towards the core. 

Dib had no idea how long they’d been walking in circles, but both of their last nerves were beginning to fray. 

“Maybe we can just walk through it?” Dib’s voice was muffled as he ripped off his glasses and rubbed his face. Zim slowly turned to fix him with the flattest of flat looks. 

“Dib-monkey, I’m going to forgive your ignorance just this once, because your primitive species is only _just_ getting a handle on washing their hideous mutant hands after defecating so, of COURSE, you’d know _nothing_ about space travel. So take note; The FIRST rule is if you find a black void from which not even light can escape, _you don’t go into it._ ” 

“If that thing were an actual black hole, we’d both be dead, _super_ dead, MEGA dead already.” Dib slipped his glasses back up the bridge of his nose to evenly meet his partner’s gaze. “And if you have a better suggestion, I’m all ears, space-boy.” 

Zim pursed his thin lips and tightly crossed his arms to glare defiantly up at his human partner. They stared each other down in silence until Dib’s head finally flopped forward with a heavy sigh. The human turned on his heel and ran a hand through his unruly hair with a gruff huff as he sauntered away from the smaller Irken. 

“Fine, whatever, you keep walking around in circles here, I don’t care. I’m going to see what’s on the other side of… whatever that dark shit is.” Dib didn’t look back over his shoulder. Instead, he shoved his hands deep into his pockets and squared his shoulders to portray confidence he certainly didn’t feel. He would rather die than ever admit it, but relief eased the tension in his shoulders when he finally heard the usual sharp little clicks of Zim’s boots on the floor tentatively fall into step behind him. 

It was absurd how much he’d come to depend on Zim as a source of both comfort and confidence. 

The hall was still engulfed in darkness once they rounded the corner, even with the lights on. Dib stopped in his tracks, as though he’d hit some invisible barrier. Fear fluttered beneath his ribs as he felt the black veil tug on the edges of his consciousness, gently but undeniably pulling him into the same trance-like state that had tried to lure him into its depths before. 

It was different this time, though. This time Dib was entering of his own free will, so he needed to keep his wits about him. 

God, it was still so cold, though. 

Tiny hands bunching into the fabric of his coat against the small of his back abruptly drew him from his thoughts. The weight of a forehead followed shortly after to press against his spine. Small, light, easily brushed away, yet at the same time, the unexpected intimacy gripped him tightly enough to freeze him in his tracks. The minutes stretched between them as Dib patiently waited for Zim to speak. The petite Irken was warmth and comfortable familiarity, the seemingly inexhaustible drive of inspiration and the flighty weight of unspoken emotion behind him, while the gaping black maw of the unknown stretched, brutally cold and unyielding, before him. 

Finally, Dib turned to gently disentangle Zim’s little claws from his coat. He awkwardly caught both the Irken’s little hands in one of his to lightly squeeze them between his thumb and forefinger and smiled faintly when he felt Zim weakly squeeze back, the little Irken’s magenta eyes wide and nervous in the dying light. 

“It’s gonna be okay, Zim, we’ve survived way stupider stunts than this before.” Dib had aimed for disarming, but with his heart in his throat, his voice cracked and landed in gawky territory instead. He licked his lips and tried an awkward grin as Zim’s brow furrowed, and his thin lips pinched further into a frown. 

“If we die, I’m going to kill you.” Zim stated flatly, but squeezed Dib’s fingers again, firmer this time. Dib figured that was as much of a go-ahead as any. He was gripped with the urge to place a gentle kiss on the top of those gloved hands, like some proper Victorian gentleman or something. He swallowed down the impulse and playfully quirked a cocky eyebrow down at his Irken partner instead as he turned back towards the dark maw, Zim’s delicate little hands still clutched gently in his. 

“I’d like to see you try, space-boy.”

\---

They crouched, huddled close to the wall of a shadowed corner while Zim peeked around the edge to watch the two hulking alien guards turn and shuffle down another corner further down the hall. The sound of their deep, unknown tongue, distorted by both distance and the narrow corridors, faded as their rounds took them further from the duo. Zim shot a victorious grin back at Dib.

“See? I told you it would be fine.” The little Irken chirped smugly and turned away to scamper across the hall before Dib had a chance to shove the insufferable little alien over. So the human settled on levelling a deep scowl at his Irken partner in crime, only for Zim to impatiently gesture for Dib to join him on the opposite end of the hall. 

“Knowing you is a burden, and every time you speak, I ask myself why I haven’t dissected you yet.” Dib hissed once he joined Zim but was promptly shushed by the former Invader. Zim pointed up at one of the markers bolted to the wall as though he expected Dib had somehow miraculously gained fluency in the alien language in which it was written since the last sign they’d encountered. Dib, not for the first time, desperately wished he could surreptitiously take pictures of the strange, blocky text to try and decipher it once they returned to Earth. But, seeing as they were faced with the genuine threat of being shot or imprisoned, he didn’t have the luxury of playing the tourist on this particular trip. So instead, he fixed a flat look at his partner. “Zim, I still can’t read that. Just tell me what it says.” 

“Pathetic.” Zim huffed and planted his fists on his hips like Dib was the one being unreasonable in this situation. “It says we’re almost at the core. _Finally._ We’re so close to my squigidium I can practically _smell_ it. So stay close- and be quiet!”

The human watched his short Irken slip away around the corner and Dib silently rose up from his crouch with an exasperated eye roll to follow Zim when the lights flickered. Dib blinked up at the ceiling. Those probably shouldn’t be doing that… right? 

He could faintly make out the outline of figures floating further down the empty hall in the flickering darkness. Solid in the dark to vanish in the light, cords coiling around their weightless forms and eyes bone white and unrelentingly blank.

“ _Dib-stink!_ ” Zim hissed impatiently around the corner, startling him out of his reverie. Dib blinked hard, the lights glowing steadily, and no trace of whatever had been floating at the end of the hall to be seen. “The guards aren’t going to be gone forever!” Dib floundered for words for a second, his gaze flicking from Zim’s face, down the hall, and back before he pinched his mouth shut with a firm nod and quickly swept around the corner behind his sworn nemesis-slash-closest friend. 

The elevator ride down to the very bottom tip of the central spike where the refined squigidium waited, packaged and ready for shipping, was uneventful, beyond their usual banter that straddled the fine line between teasing and arguing. Or flirting, as Gaz was always quick to rudely accuse. Not that she had any idea what she was talking about. Because she didn’t. 

Zim himself had said, loudly and on more than one occasion, that his species was incapable of forming romantic bonds or feeling anything akin to human affection. 

As for Dib, well, when one has dedicated so much of their life to the study and constant thwarting of their most profoundly despised nemesis, which necessarily involved spending enormous amounts of time thinking about said nemesis, it wasn’t entirely unusual to wind up with some… conflicting emotions. Where Zim’s species was apparently devoid of any desire for a life partner, Dib’s was tragically hard-wired to seek out precisely that. And Dib, as logical and level headed as he tried to be, was just as much a slave to his own biology as Zim was.

So what if sometimes being around the former Invader filled his ribs with butterflies? That didn’t mean Dib wouldn’t shove the annoying alien out his window if Zim was a little shithead. Dib _wanted,_ even he could admit that, but… it was all just chemicals, it didn’t mean anything, not really. And he knew nothing could ever come of it, so he had to settle on satisfying himself with merely being near the object of his obsession. That was enough for Dib because it had to be. And if his heart fluttered whenever Zim’s pretty magenta eyes burned into his, or if he laid awake deep into the night in his tiny studio apartment, the wicked edge of yearning so sharp his arms _ached_ with their emptiness, well, that was a secret for him and no one else. It was just chemicals. It didn’t mean anything, because it couldn’t mean anything, because Dib wasn’t in love with his closest nemesis/friend. (And even if he was, it’s not like Zim could ever love him back, so their eternal stalemate stayed the same.)

Either way, if he shifted to stand a bit closer to his Irken partner in crime during the long elevator ride, not touching- _never touching_ \- but close enough to feel Zim’s gentle warmth against his knuckles, well, that was a secret for him and no one else. 

Whatever soft feeling had been fluttering airily deep in his chest was promptly replaced by a sharp jolt of raw adrenaline when the elevator door opened directly in front of a small group of hulking alien guards. 

Both groups froze for a beat in a moment of shock, the tallest guard in the back dropped his soda.

“Hey, isn’t that the same Irken that blew up the Delta Wing Excavator Arm?” One of the guards pointed down at Zim.

“You blew up-?! ZIM! You said what you did last time you were here was legal!” Dib’s gaze snapped down to the scrawny Irken in time to see Zim’s antenna nervously dip.

“Eh, I’m sure it’s legal somewhere. Probably.” Zim awkwardly shrugged his narrow shoulders, and Dib was gripped with the soul-deep urge to punt the tiny terror like a football. 

Which he would just have to act on later, as every guard pulled out some flavour of ridiculous space weapons and the alarms began blaring above them. Things got a bit hairy after that. 

It certainly wasn’t the first blaster fight Dib had found himself entangled it, and ABSOLUTELY wasn’t the first he’d been dragged into by association with Zim. In hindsight, Dib decided he actually didn’t feel so bad about frying Zim’s base AI. The tiny Irken turd deserved every terrible thing Dib did to him. And then some. 

Dib dived behind one of the skids of packed squigidium and slammed his back against the pallet, his chest heaving as he checked how close his blaster was to finish recharging. 32%. He growled low in his throat and banged his head against the blasted squigidium piled behind him that was currently eating the fire otherwise meant for his fleshy human body. 

“Stink-meat?” Dib groaned and squeezed his eyes shut at the annoyingly familiar voice as Zim skidded to a stop behind the pallet across from him. “Are you damaged?” Zim hissed across the narrow path separating them.

“Don’t talk to me. Don’t look at me.” Dib glanced down at his blaster again, as if it would somehow sense his frustration and charge faster. “Don’t even _breathe_ in my direction ever again.” He finished gruffly without looking at the tiny Invader.

“I try to not look directly at you already, hideous Earth-boy. Are you bleeding out or what?” Zim narrowed his eyes and planted a hand on his hip. 

“I’m fine. You owe me a new coat, though.” Dib gritted his teeth and shot Zim a petulant glare. “AND, like, at _least_ a pizza and a six-pack for dragging me into this!”

“I told you NOT to come!” Zim’s antenna bolted upright, deeply offended. 

“How about you, space-boy, any of your insides turned into outsides over there?” Dib’s gaze flicked anxiously over Zim’s tiny form. He knew Irkens could survive an actually ludicrous amount of damage, but still. 

“Zim is fine.” The former Invader sniffed and leaned around the edge of his pallet to return fire. “I take it you’re out of ammo already?” 

“I think the charger on this thing is broken-” Dib began to object since, _clearly,_ he couldn’t have wasted his shots _that_ quickly. There was no way Zim was THAT much of a better marksman than Dib (the Irken’s literal lifetime’s worth of military training notwithstanding). Zim rolled his eyes before Dib could even finish and popped his mouth open to interrupt his human’s little tirade-

The scene flickered like distortion on an old VHS tape, and the hair on the back of Dib’s neck stood on end. He couldn’t see them, but he could feel stark, blank white eyes watching him from the end of the hall he both was and wasn’t standing in, cords coiling around their jagged frames. It suddenly occurred to him why they seemed so familiar, that he knew what they were-

**~are you sure you want to continue?~**

-when a space station was compromised and forced into lockdown mode, a small crew would be sent in to find the breach and proceed with repairs. It was slow work, the team impaired by their bulky spacesuits and lack of gravity in the narrow, featureless pitch-black halls-

_His fingers were too cold as if the joints had frozen solid locked in their tight grip._

**~you already know how it ends~**

_Zim was calling his name._

Both Zim and Dib’s eyes ripped away from each other at the sound of metal screeching, their gaze drawn to the twisting form of one of the massive loading cranes tearing free from the wall after taking one too many stray shots. It felt like Dib was watching in slow motion as it crashed down onto one of the enormous transport ships docked near the loading bay airlock doors. It must have hit one of the fuel lines because the ship burst into a ball of violent orange flame that rocked the entire loading bay.

But no sound accompanied the explosion, and the flames died out almost instantly. 

Zim called his name. 

First, Dib was confused, but that was washed away by a wave of raw horror a split second later.

Zim sounded frightened.

Dib’s eyes widened, his gaze locked past the massive loading bay door to the inky black beyond, stars twinkling coldly in the distance. 

The explosion had punched a hole through one of the airlock doors. 

The tragic occupants of the loading bay sucked in a collective gasp, and then there was utter, complete silence. There wasn't any air to carry the screams as the bay rapidly depressurized, and everything that wasn’t bolted down was sucked out into the unfathomably cold darkness beyond. 

All he knew in those final fleeting moments was cold, and terror, and the small, solid, weight of Zim’s little hand desperately clutching his. His fingers were too cold to comfortingly squeeze back, the joints frozen solid locked in their tight grip. Still, Zim’s lips moved as he gazed pleadingly up at Dib.

Zim was calling his name.

His beautiful eyes were wide and impossibly bright, and it was weirdly fitting because Dib couldn’t think of anything else he’d prefer to be the last thing he’d see. 

He swore he couldn’t hear Zim, he couldn’t hear _anything,_ yet Zim’s desperate cry rang through his entire being like ripples through still water, and suddenly Dib was on the lip of the dark mass clogging the hall. His feet floated, weightless, on the precipice of the cold black fog, of the Unknown that lay beyond. Of course, it would make sense, the central power would be shut down after the station was evacuated, so obviously, there would be no gravity to hold him down. 

Or air, but it appeared that wasn’t much of an issue for either of them anymore. 

Dib turned to gaze numbly down at the tiny hands stubbornly gripping his, Zim’s little feet still planted firmly on the ground, his heels digging in as he tried to pull Dib back from the edge. It took him a moment to realize Zim was still talking, his voice distant and distorted, but his little lips were moving, his face pinched as though in pain. 

“Zim?” Dib’s voice was low, raw, and the world of the station came back into sharp focus. 

“ _Stop it!_ ” Zim’s voice was desperate, shrill, as he yanked on Dib’s hand. “Don’t you dare, _don’t you DARE,_ you horrible, smelly, AWFUL-” Dib twisted weightlessly to gently lay his other hand over top of Zim’s, and his Irken’s eyes snapped open, wide, frightened, and beautiful. Something unutterably tender fluttered deep within the core of Dib’s being, and he was gripped by the sudden inexplicable urge to cry. It wasn’t fair- _it wasn’t fair_ \- but it’s not like they could go back and change things now. Their story had already ended. So he lightly squeezed Zim’s thin, delicate wrists, a small, simple gesture that carried the weight of regret, of unspoken confessions and of time both wasted and lost, of could-have-beens that would never be. 

Of all they’d been and all they’d never get to be, everything they’d lost before they even found.

“What is even your damage, Zim?” He teased in a soft huff as he shook his head affectionately. Even though it never had a chance to blossom, the seed of what they could have been- what they were- had already taken root. A gentle warmth that fluttered and danced like an ember deep in the core of his being in stride with the way Zim’s large magenta eyes caught the light to illuminate secret galaxies hidden within. Not even the icy chill of the Unknown could damper it. Zim’s face twisted, clearly in no mood for teasing, and he tugged more viciously on Dib’s hands. 

“My _damage_ is this is a _terrible_ plan, and you’re an IDIOT that’s going to get yourself-” Zim clenched his interlocking teeth as his antenna pressed miserably flat against his scalp, his expression flinched dangerously close to grief before he squeezed his eyes shut and vehemently shook his head. “This is stupid, and there’s GOT to be another way to find our ship. Then we can just go home and forget all of this ever happened.” 

“I- I don’t think we _can_ go home, Zim.” Dib’s voice hitched as the Unknown pulled at him again, his coat swirling weightlessly around him as the tips of his boots brushed lightly over the tiles. All the other ties that had once anchored him enough to overpower the beckoning call of the Unknown, to his sister, his father, his crappy little apartment, his budding career and lifelong passions, had all been severed. All but one. Zim squeezed his eyes shut tighter and shook his head harder. 

“It doesn’t matter, _it doesn’t matter!_ ” Zim’s lips quivered and pressed into a tight line as his narrow shoulders bunched. He tried tugging Dib closer again, and when that failed, he took a small step forward to press his forehead against their entwined hands. “All that matters is that you stay with me.”

Dib carefully detangled their hands to wrap his arms around the trembling Irken and gently drew him closer into his embrace. They just held each other in silence for a long while, the enormity of what they’d lost finally settling around them. Dib would never fix his relationship with his dad or see his sister finish university and get her degree. God, his family wouldn’t even know what happened to him, their day to day lives carrying on with a blank space where Dib used to be, the memory of him an open wound they’d carry into an uncertain future. He’d never know if he could have made it following his passions into the career of a real paranormal investigator. The silly blogs and servers he’d poured so many hours of his life into just an echo of a voice cut abruptly short, destined to be buried, forgotten, and eventually lost altogether. It was so much- _too_ much. How could one human heart accumulate so much that had to be left behind? 

“Do you know what keeps a spirit bound to a place?” Dib cupped the back of Zim’s neck and smoothed a thumb over his soft skin. Zim nuzzled deeper into Dib’s chest without responding, his sharp little claws hooking into his human’s shirt. “Sometimes it’s to pass a message on to a living person, or other times it’s for revenge if they died violently or unjustly.” Dib slowly drew away to tilt Zim’s head back to face him and shifted his hand to gently cup Zim’s cheek. He took a moment to drink in that familiar face before continuing softly. “Often, it’s because of unfinished business. Regrets. Things they never did, or things they never said.” Zim turned away to hide his face in Dib’s palm. Dib swallowed thickly, the memory of Zim’s lips moving silently in the void as he desperately gripped Dib’s hand wafted to the front of his mind. He curled loosely around the small Irken to lightly nuzzle one of Zim’s antennas, his voice barely a whisper. “What were you trying to tell me, space-boy?” 

Zim shivered in his arms and hesitated before tentatively laying one small hand over the back of Dib’s palm the little Irken still had his face pressed into. Something between fear and a strange sense of excitement fluttered in Dib’s chest as he felt the gravity keeping Zim solidly rooted suddenly give way, his feet lifting up from the floor to drift weightlessly in a lazy spiral, entwined with his human. All the while, his soft lips moved silently against Dib’s palm.

Three small words, over and over. 

Dib couldn’t find words to describe the elation that swelled beneath his ribs. All he could think to do was nuzzle into that warm skin and pepper Zim’s forehead and temple with tender, lingering kisses and hold his Irken closer than he’d ever been brave enough to attempt in life. 

And it was strange how the dark void suddenly didn’t feel so cold and frightening anymore. As they twirled on the blurred edge of the precipice, Dib was reminded of warm summer evenings when he was 12. Of cutting across the park through the dust and pollen painted liquid gold in the setting sun, buoyed by excitement and determination, the thrill of a legitimate nemesis to thwart, finally, something worthwhile to get out of bed for. When the future was a vast and shapeless thing that lay before him, immeasurable and impossibly bright. 

With Zim pressed snugly against his chest and the universe stretching in an endless spiral around them, it felt an awful lot like finally coming home. 

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> *GIR voice* It was them! They were the ghosts all along! 
> 
> For real though, in case it wasn't clear, the ghosty specters were actually a trio of living peeps just trying to do their jobs and getting the bejeebus scared out of them by a pair of dumb, stubborn space boyfriends >> I super didn't get into it here, but I feel like how the living trio looked to Dib is how Dib & Zim would look to them. Either way, uh, I'm sorry, and as always, have a lovely day <3


End file.
